British Esports Championships

The British Esports Championships is an exciting new competitive video gaming competition for students aged 12-19 in schools and colleges across the UK.

How does it work?

Not-for-profit
organisation the British Esports Association has partnered with the Twitch
Student Program and AoC Sport (part of the Association of Colleges) to
grow the Championships and help give students support and
opportunities.

The Championships are open to all secondary schools, Further Education (FE) Colleges and
Alternative Provision (AP) schools in the UK and will be PC based.

Each school or college is allowed
to enter teams for three different games. The first confirmed
game is 5v5 League of Legends.

The Championships will
begin on October 10th and run for two seasons, the first consisting of eight
weeks of fixtures with breaks for half term and the second running in the New
Year. The first six weeks will feature a Swiss tournament format, with Playoffs
taking place during the remaining weeks.

The live finals are set to take place at the Insomnia
gaming festival in Easter 2019 at the Birmingham NEC.

Team sign-ups will open in the first week of September and will close on September 26th. Visit the dedicated
Championships information coming soon on
www.britishesports.org to
sign up or read more information.

The announcement follows a
successful pilot which took place in schools and colleges from January to April
and saw
Solihull School and Sunderland College win the respective
Championships.

Key info for teachers and institutions

Team signups don't open until September, but in the meantime you can view our download this handy PDF deck which runs through everything from format, to timings, PC specifications, safeguarding, info on funding, team jerseys, Twitch Student, the benefits of esports and more.

What students need to know

If you're a student aged 12-19 interested in taking part in the
upcoming British Esports Championships for schools, colleges or
Alternative Provision schools, here's some of the key info you need to
know.

There's info here on how to enter, what you should tell your teacher(s) about the Championships, Twitch Student details and so on.

What we learnt from our pilot tournament

The British Esports Association held a Championships pilot across three different types of educational institution from February to April 2018: Four secondary schools, eight further education colleges and four alternative provision schools.

It was the first grassroots esports tournament of its kind for colleges in the UK. The pilot included three games: League of Legends, Overwatch and Project CARS 2.

Teams played against each other in competitive leagues, with weekly scheduled fixtures similar to traditional sports. There were two stages: a group stage with a league table followed by knockout-style playoffs. The championships were eventually won by Solihull School and Sunderland College.

Online safety was paramount. The pilot was a closed community with only those institutions registered for the pilot able to use the platform. Secure, unique log-ins were provided to each school or college.

The pilot secured great PR coverage for the Championships and individual colleges and schools, with the BBC, Sky News and many more covering the pilot.

The British Esports Association worked with the teachers, school leaders and academics in esports to monitor the pilot, record results and demonstrate best practice.